Relationship with "best friend" is super complicated - need some explanations

Alright, I have a feeling this will end up being quite long so sorry for that haha. But this has been on my mind for quite some time, and while it's not really irritating or worrying, I just feel like getting it off my chest and maybe getting some help/explanations with some of it, because it tends to confuse me a lot.

So, I'm biologically female (I identify as genderqueer, usually genderfluid) and so is my best friend. We're both 16 and met two years ago because we were in the same class, and we just clicked straight away. We share the same sense of humour, interests, tastes, opinions blah blah blah. Only saw her as a good, close friend. Just last year we both kinda experienced some personal problems and we stayed in touch a lot and helped one another, you know, just looking out and taking care of her. I think during this time I started to really connect with her on another sort of way. I was starting to feel like we had gotten closer on a deeper level because we know so much about each other, so I kinda got attached to her. I always felt really happy around her, and honestly though about her a lot. I was always thinking of when I was next seeing her at school and got really upset, aka jealous as hell, seeing her with someone else. To be perfectly honest, i still don't feel like it was a developing crush. That word doesn't feel right; I've always felt like it was something a little bigger than that. Like looking out for her made me see her in a different perspective and I was drawn to that??

Anyway, we were super close, always talking, I began calling her my best friend. I started thinking of her as all these things. Cue the holidays off from school, and we're texting. I should also mention that, actually before this time I got the thought/idea of kissing her, which I never really fussed over about, more like a 'meh, I can explain that, I just wanna show her that I love her'. I still felt like that was totally strange to bring up. and it wasn't like it was ever going to happen, and that fact made me a bit disappointed. Anyway, we're texting, and we're joking about things, and I suddenly bring up the fact that i'm surprised we still haven't kissed yet. Cue immediate face palm! She was all like whatttt and found it really hilarious and cute, kinda not taking it seriously, and I was trying to go along with it even though, even if i tried to make it look like a joke, it wasn't. A few days later, she texts me saying she can't stop thinking about what I've said. Now this was the night (where we stayed up until 4 am texting i must add) where a LOT of things changed. We started admitting a lot of things to each other; she said how easily she could miss me, how she always wanted to be around me and was happy with me and that she even had a small crush on me etc, basically most of the things I could say about her. I couldn't believe it, especially when she admitted to not minding kissing me at all (I would kiss you anytime lol that was the exact text I remember it) And being the noobs we were haha, we began discussing a certain time we would do it at. I'm still not sure if we were being serious at all, but we really couldn't ignore the fact we still wanted to do it.

We've always been pretty touchy; she held my hand a lot and put her head on my shoulder, and we hugged a lot and said I love you, she called me cute a bunch of times, and while I didn't really think much of it, there was no denying i felt very happy with her in that way. But i think that after the holidays had passed and we were back at school, we became even more clingy to each other than usual. Idk, maybe it was all this tension between us; plus a few of our friends always joked about "stop being so gay" haha. Anyway, on the day we planned, she came to my house after school, and we didn't mention it at all, in fact we put it off for a long time before she had the courage to tell me to hurry up lol. So, being extremely shy and giggly and nervous as hell, I kissed her first, then she kissed me. And then afterwards we discussed how lame we were for being scared about it haha. Way before this, she asked me a lot about the reason behind doing it, because she said that she didn't really want to if it was 'just because'. I said i wanted to show her that i loved her in just a different way, plus the idea of both our first kisses being from each other, aka best friends was really nice. Until that day, i didn't expect us to like, keep going with it, besides we just talked about sharing one kiss. But I honestly found myself wanting to do it again. Lol, so I did the next day. She tells me, that after our exam week was over, we would find time to "hang out". I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Back then i had no idea what that agreement would lead us into.

So, every week from that first day (1 to 3 days usually) she's come over to my house, and we go to my room and make out. It's been going on for 4 months now; and it's been, well, haha progressing i guess. We have made out countless times on my bed in different positions, that was pretty much all we would do (also kisses on the neck, collarbone, ears etc.) until she started touching and kissing my stomach, back and chest, and she let me do the same to her. Move on to touching basically everywhere but usually with clothes on haha, especially thighs. And just a few weeks ago, we've started to 'rub' each other through our jeans, and we've now grinded and dry humped on one another a lot. We comment and joke around during these times; sometimes we admit to each other what we really like the most and what kinda turns us on. It's been like this every time she's come over, we usually sit in my room and talk about things, then make out amongst *ahem* a lot of other things. She looks at me in the most adorable way, like she's totally head over heels for me. Idk, it's just that gaze you see in movies between couples. We also cuddle a lot and do cutesy fluffy things in between.

Now, obviously this has confused us countless times. She's always like "i tend not to overthink what we're doing" and honestly neither do I, but I just can't wrap my head around the fact I still call her a friend. I've mentioned how ridiculous the words seems and she agrees, but what does that mean? Because she honestly is still my best friend, she's the bestest friend i've ever and will have, and yeah of course I love her to bits. I always used to think, well kissing is another way of showing her, that I'm here for her and blah blah, but we're doing more than that. It could basically be experimenting, I get that, but it just sounds wrong in a way, just like simply calling her a friend. Because it all feels genuine, everything we do seems to mean something. "Friends with benefits" I suggested once, but no, definitely not. I asked her if she could consider us a couple, and all I got was a shrug. I get that we don't need to put a label on it, but I have so much trouble trying to figure out where our relationship stands. We enjoy what we're doing, we love each other's companies - we're always texting about how much we love and miss each other, dedicating songs, giving each other gifts, acting super clingy all the time...really, those aren't things you generally do with best friends. Yeah, we're super close and like to show our admiration in those ways or whatever, but what about our thoughts of running away together? We've discussed living together in the future a lot now; she seems to absolutely refuse to to have her life without me. What do you call that? I asked her if she was in love with me, she answered that she's not sure because she doesn't know what it feels like. she said, isn't love and being in love kinda the same thing?

It gets even more confusing considering we're both straight. Hahaha, well, at least that's what she says. There's a huge chance she's bi or maybe heteroflexible; and as for me, well, that question is totally out of my understanding. I'm always wavering between bisexual with a strong preference to guys, to pansexual, to what the hell even. That's something alone i have trouble piecing out. I've always thought that, maybe kissing her and being with her in this way doesn't have anything to do with her gender, i just generally love her as the person she is, and just because I may act sexual with her doesn't automatically put me on a "you're lesbian" level. I don't know if that just sounds stupid and naive, and that I'm in denial, but i've never been with another guy or girl so i can't say for sure. Ever since we've been doing our whole making out + other things sessions i've noticed i started questioning my sexuality a lot more, which I haven't expected myself to do. I've always thought i was straight and was never worried or confused when I found a certain female attractive, because it didn't have to matter or mean anything. But, idk, this is a whole different thing altogether. Maybe I could only do this sort of stuff with her, my best friend, then just a random girl.

I definitely don't try to overthink this whole thing because well, obviously my long ass thoughts happens lol. But I get really confused over what exactly we're doing. I enjoy it, don't get me wrong. In fact, I feel like i can't get enough of it, and i start missing her really easily. I always wanna be with her and do things, just me and her alone. It's ridiculous how attached i am to her, honestly. I am so lucky to have her. Being with her makes me so happy and i find myself getting upset and lonely when I think of how far apart we can often be. So no, i never want it to stop, i'll never find it boring that's definitely for sure. I can't see myself in the future without her still by my side somehow. It's like she's almost become essential to my living haha. She always says these types of things back to me, along with cute little compliments and such and it just gets me so happy. I don't know if knowing or even having a kind of "level" or "type" of relationship matters or changes anything, but I would just like to hear your opinions on this. "Friendship" is kinda out of the question but idk why it feels so strange to call ourselves something more, even if we act like it exactly that there sometimes is no point denying. Am I really in love with her? Could you call us a couple? i don't even think she likes to have us called that, remembering how annoyed she would sometimes get when my friend joked about it.

So, soooo incredibly sorry this is so ridiculously long. I get why you would skip most of it lol. But, just, i actually don't know what i'm looking for here exactly. I've just spent most of the time ranting about things. But, if you have an opinion or some help or explanation, i would gladly love to hear them. I shall shut up now haha. Thanks guys xx